I want you to become aware of a specific ‘urban issue’. Something that is hot, something new, something that matters. You can pick any issue yourself, as long it has an impact on the quality of life of citizens, and as dealing with that issue will effectively change cities.

I want you to explore that issue by means of research, in order to learn how design (or planning) can improve (or worsen) that issue.

Finally I want you to formulate solutions, and implement these solutions by means of design.

As an urbanist, I had been participating in real practice for twelve years, mainly in Rotterdam, in urban renewal processes. I had been published about this issues books, papers in international journals and films. My main topics are urban regeneration design strategies, urban planning, socio-spatial processes, sustainable development.

I am an anthropologist who loves to explore new ways of thinking, sensing and doing the city. In my research and publications I focus on the intersections between theories of the city, anthropological fieldwork and practices of urban design and (interior)architecture. My main interest is in the anthropology of urban space, as it relates to issues like the meanings of home and community, public, private and parochial space, narrative cartography, the relations between architecture and the everyday, the use of branding and public art in gentrification neighborhoods, and the practices of domination and everyday resistance.

I’m an urbanist and architect. My research focuses on the urban morphological and socio-spatial preconditions that influence urban programme, with a special interest in mixed use and diversity. I emphasize on working through the scales, from the building to the city region. My work so far comprised research and design mainly in Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna, including their surrounding regions.

Mixed use and diversity are both scale depended. The scale on which we find mixture (of functions or people) sketches more or less what urban living qualities or conflicts the users of an area may experience. Not only the effects of spatial vicinity of functions at the present are important to investigate, but also change through time puts a challenge to the planning and design of urban programme.

Machiel van Dorst is an environmental designer and is specialized in environment-behavior interaction and sustainable development. Behavior research and design is related to control, social safety, community design, child friendly cities, health and stress reduction through design. For sustainable development the emphasis is on the combination of livability and ecological design.